Jenmenke

Road Warrior

Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday Twenty!

So, I had bookclub on Monday this week. Didn’t prepare ahead and have Meatless Monday on Sunday. Didn’t cook meatless for my family before I left. Didn’t do much of anything, really. Except have a rotten, horrible day. I can’t remember everything that happened, but Monday was bad, bad, bad.

I was late to bookclub as usual, but what to my wondering eyes should appear?

But a Sheilabird cooking Meatless Monday for Jennie, so dear!

Yes, it’s true. My friend Sheila cooked a Meatless Monday meal in my honor! Well, I don’t know if it was really in my honor, but she said it was, and I am choosing to believe her. Of course, I didn’t have my camera. And of course everyone was freaking out about me taking pictures with my iphone. So they all stink. The pictures, I mean. Not the guests. But really! What’s so bad about a nasty picture on my blog? No one reads the stupid thing except you guys, and you don’t care, do you?

Anyway. It was lovely. Sheila’s bookclub dinners always are. She served something she made last fall called Indian Relish (Is that right, Sheila? I’m too lazy to call you) over cream cheese with those wafer-thin crackers that remind me of ice cream cones. The relish reminds me of pepper jelly, sort of sweet/onion/hot… So good

And she had an awesome zinfandel.

Which I promptly spilled on her brand-new-not-even-finished-quilted tablecloth.

So uncouth.

The main event was what she calls Green and White Pasta, even though we all know pasta isn’t really white. Maybe the white should be the green onion. Anyway, it’s a recipe that originally called for broccoli that she has morphed into a conflagration of green veggies. Any you have on hand, really. She used asparagus (AND DIDN’T CALL ME FOR ANY!), peas, thin green beans and green onions.

Yuk! I just found a wood tick stuck into my shoulder blade. I saw it in the mirror last night and thought it was a zit. Sorry. I guess I thought you’d want to know that…

This is how you make it:

Green & White Pasta, serves 8

  • 1 lb Pasta. Pick a fun shape. She used Campanelle, but also likes Gemelli.
  • 6-10 cloves garlic minced (to taste)
  • 4 T olive oil, divided
  • 1-2 t red pepper flakes (to taste)
  • 1 small bunch asparagus (figure about 12-16 spears)
  • 1 cup green peas
  • 1 bunch green onion
  • 1 small bunch chives (if you haven’t killed them all with Round-Up yet), chopped/minced.
  • 1 small bunch haricot vert (thin green beans)
  • juice from 2 large lemons
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
  • 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted. (to toast, spread on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. WATCH CLOSELY! better to under-toast than to over-toast.)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Blanch the asparagus and beans till just tender crisp and chill in an ice bath. Drain and cut into approximately 2-3″ pieces. Cook the pasta in well seasoned water until just al dente, drain. In a large heavy bottomed pot, big enough to hold the entire dish, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Saute until fragrant, about a minute. Add green onions and pepper flakes, saute another minute. Add the beans, asparagus, peas and chives to the pot. Saute until warmed thru. Add the cooked and drained pasta to the mix, gently stirring to combine. Add another 2 tablespoons (or more to taste) of olive oil. Add the lemon juice and parmesan cheese. Stir until everything is hot and combined. Top with toasted pine nuts and serve with more parmesan on the side.

Enjoy!*

* I hate when waiters say “Enjoy!”

Meatless Monday Nineteen!

Steamy Kitchen’s Shrimp Fried Rice

It’s another recipe from The Steamy Kitchen’s cookbook. But in the text, she credits Elise from SimplyRecipes.com for the recipe. It’s all so confusing! Either way, it was easy and delicious.

I got a new rice cooker for Mother’s Day. An expensive Neuro Fuzzy to replace my very old $25 one. The old one worked fine, but the teflon interior was all peeling, which — if you ever read my post about switching to cast iron pans, you’ll know — freaks me out.

So I got the cadillac of rice cookers.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I didn’t get the induction model. Still not real sure what that does for you. This one is complicated enough to keep me busy for a while. (Seriously. It’s insane.). I’m hoping I can eventually do all sorts of stuff in it, like barley and Israeli cous cous, etc. We’ll see.

Anyway, I was keen to try it out, so on Sunday night, I made a big batch of rice to cool in the refrigerator overnight to use for fried rice on Meatless Monday night. I’ve been making fried rice forever. My mom made it way back in the 70’s. And her’s is the recipe I still use for the most part. But I’m always up for something new. And shrimp fried it was, since I actually had shrimp. [but if you must know, it was the shrimp I stole from my Dad a couple Meatless Mondays ago]

I also served the Salmon with Kabayaki sauce that I made a few weeks ago at Dave’s request, but I already shared that recipe. You can click on it if you are interested. (It is quite good!)

Shrimp Fried Rice
  • 4 cups white rice, cooked and cooled at least overnight
  • 1/2 – 1 lb raw, shelled & deveined shrimp
  • 1/2 t salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 t cornstarch
  • 1 t sesame oil
  • 2 T vegetable oil, divided
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 2 green onions, cut into 1/2″ pieces on diagonal
  • 1 t fish sauce
  • 2 t soy sauce
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cup peas
  • drizzling of sesame oil

Separate the rice grains before starting recipe. Toss the shrimp, cornstarch, salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon sesame oil together and let marinate at least 10 minutes at room temp.

Heat a wok on high. When it is smoking, add 1 tablespoon oil, swirl to coat and add the shrimp, spreading out into a single layer and not moving for 30 seconds. Flip over and let other side cook for 30 seconds, then remove to a plate.

Turn the heat to medium and add the eggs to wok, spread out and scramble. Remove eggs to same plate as shrimp when eggs are just barely, barely cooked.

Wipe wok out and return to high heat. Add remaining tablespoon of oil, swirl to coat and add green onions. Stir fry about 15 seconds, then add the rice, spreading out in an even layer. Cook about a minute. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to toss the rice, spreading out again and cooking for another minute.

Drizzle the fish sauce and soy sauce all around and toss the rice again. Add the peas, the eggs, the shrimp and drizzle with about 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately. Serve with additional soy sauce if desired.

[I used a bit more sesame oil than the recipe calls for. I didn’t use carrots, because I didn’t have any. If you want the recipe exactly as Jaden writes it, you’ll have to buy it for yourself — which I highly recommend!)

Meatless Monday Eighteen!

Morel Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto

If you haven’t read the Morel post from yesterday, please do. It gives background information necessary for truly understanding the nature of this very special Meatless Monday meal.

No, I’m not talking about the asparagus, that I’m ready to plow under. I’m talking, of course, about the two-year wait for morels fresh from our own woods. I liken it to the meals you eat while camping. Nothing tastes better than anything you make to eat when you are camping. And morels that you found yourself, in your own barren forest, taste better than any other.

I also — finally — made my own vegetable stock. I didn’t open any books to guide me on this journey, mind you. I just threw some veggies in a pan.

Roasted them at 450 for about 30 minutes.

Added water and simmered for an hour or two…

And just like that I had vegetable stock that tasted exactly like… water.

It was a beautiful golden brown color. It had a good aroma. But it tasted like water. And so it began, the random dumping of ingredients into the pot. I added tons of garlic, bay leaves, a sprig of rosemary, another onion, another carrot, two more stalks of celery, some wine, a splash of balsamic.

No, I’m not kidding. I really did add all that stuff. And in the end, it tasted like very weak vegetable stock. Which was actually perfect.

Because, have I written about making risotto before? How I love it so much, but when I make it it always seems so cloyingly rich? How I used to use my homemade chicken stock, but have eventually gravitated toward watered down store-bought Swanson’s broth? I think I might have, but if you didn’t read it, now you know.

So, I really was after a weak-tasting stock. Still, I was shocked at how many vegetables you actually have to use in order to get any flavor! I thought the roasting of them would combat that, but it didn’t. It just gave it a deeper color.

Anyway. Enough of that. I made it, it was delicious and I didn’t miss chicken broth one bit in this recipe. In fact, it was so good, I just might make the risotto this way always. Well, when I have the time to be farting around all day, that is.

For the four of us (and this left two servings of leftovers), I used 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice and about … I’m thinking back here…. about 8-9 cups of liquid. I could not believe how much liquid I needed. 3/4 cup of it was white wine, about 6 cups of it was the stock and the rest was water I kept adding at the end to get it the consistency we like — more soupy, less dry.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I made the risotto to just-short of being done and finished it two hours later. If you don’t know me personally, you will think the unforeseen circumstance was something like : the dog got hurt and had to go to the vet. Or, a friend called and asked for my help with driving her kids around…

But you’d be wrong. The unforeseen circumstance was soccer practice, which has been on the calendar for weeks. It was unforeseen in my own mind only. Dave was looking at me like I had three heads when I told him we were eating before practice. Of course, he was right and I was wrong.

But things happen for a reason, I like to think. And in this case it was the marvelous discovery of risotto being ‘par cooked’, or whatever the hell those Top Chefs call it on TV. I think this is what restaurants must do, as they can’t possibly be making risotto to order from scratch at a restaurant because it would take too long. It suddenly makes risotto a viable dish to make for company if you don’t want to be standing at the stove for an hour while guests stand around saying things like “Isn’t there something I can help you with?” …As you run around like a chicken with your head cut off, plunging your dirty hands into the food they will be eating later. Always a little disconcerting…

Oh my gosh. I talk/write too much. I’m not even at the damn recipe yet… I’ll just get to it. Sorry.

Morel and Asparagus Risotto (vegetarian)
  • 6-8 cups weak or watered down vegetable stock
  • 3/4 cup white wine
  • 1 1/2 cup arborio rice
  • 2T butter or olive oil
  • 1 small onion diced (I used frozen chopped leeks)
  • 1 large clove garlic, pressed
  • large bundle of asparagus cut on the diagonal into 2″ pieces, blanched
  • 2 cups (or whatever you can manage) washed and dried morel mushrooms, cut in half and sauteed in butter till browned
  • 1 cup finely grated pecorino or parmesan cheese

I put much of the prep instructions up there in the ingredient list. I wanted the asparagus to look perfect in the rice and not be overcooked, so I opted to blanch it rather than to cook it in the risotto. I think this is worth the extra dirty pan because with fresh garden asparagus, the tips would look mutilated from the stirring.

I also wanted the morels to have as much flavor as possible. I’m often disappointed when putting morels in with other foods, because you miss them in the other flavors and then they seem wasted. It is why I far more often just saute them in butter and eat them out of the pan. So for this recipe, I sauteed them in butter until the edges started to brown and crisp, salted and peppered, ate a few and saved the rest for stirring into the almost finished risotto. When I realized I needed more liquid than the vegetable stock I had ready, I deglazed the mushroom pan with water and used that for the liquid. It worked great and I would recommend it if you find yourself in a similar situation. OR, if you use dried mushrooms, save the soaking water and add to the risotto. It has a lot of flavor. (see? I’m still talking too much)

Bring the stock to a simmer in a sauce pan. In a separate large dutch oven or pan large enough for the finished risotto, heat the butter or oil over medium heat, and saute the onion until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the rice, stirring constantly, and saute for another couple minutes. Add the wine, stirring, until mostly absorbed. Add the stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring more often than not, as the stock is absorbed and is mostly absorbed by the rice (when you stir there isn’t liquid sitting on the bottom of the pan anymore), add another cup of stock. Occasionally take a bite of rice to see what stage it is at. Mine took about 25 minutes to get to the point that I ran out of time. At that point, I had added all of my 6 cups of stock and  the mushrooms. I covered it so the cats wouldn’t eat it and left. When I came back two hours later, I heated up 2 more cups of water (I do think that par cooking the rice and finishing later uses more liquid, so if you are making it to eat right away, you will use less), and finished cooking the risotto. Stir the blanched asparagus into the rice. Stir 3/4 cup of the grated cheese into the rice. Put into a big pretty bowl and top with remaining cheese.

In retrospect, I think a squeeze of lemon juice would have been really good, but by this time, it was about 9:20pm at our house and my kids would have stabbed me in the eye with a fork if I had told them to wait. This also explains the rather horrible photo, too, which for me has now become a tradition for Meatless Monday posts.

Meatless Monday Seventeen!

Shrimp Pad Thai

I’m over-the-moon about this recipe.

[Now, if by chance, there were anyone under the age of 40 reading this post, I will have lost them with that first sentence. What kind of loser says “over the moon?”]

But I am. Over the moon.

I am giving all the credit to the recipe on Rouxbe.com. I know I have mentioned that site before, but can’t remember when. I watched a whole bunch of their video cooking lessons when the site was first launched and everything was free — about a year or so ago. (It was probably three years ago, and my addled and aging mind has compressed a thousand days into 300 or so.)

As planned, after that initial launch period, some of the content became subscription based. I got busy and stopped visiting the site, having watched most of it anyway. Then one day early this year, I got an email saying something like “One Time Chance! Lifetime Membership for the low fee of _____!” I usually delete offers like that, and who knows why, but I clicked the link. I refuse to give the amount I paid here because Dave has apparently been sneaking over to this site and secretly reading it on occasion (!) and I don’t want him using it against me. I like to pretend I am a woman barely making ends meet by using three year old garden carrots out the freezer for dinner. You know what I mean? He knows I’m buying cooking school lessons and… well then I’ll have to start explaining why I won’t turn the heat up past 64 degrees in the winter… (Answer: to pay for online cooking school lessons.)

You can go to Rouxbe (pronounced Roo-Bee) yourself to see how much it was. But let me just say this: my aging and addled mind — for some reason — saw the price as being $100 less than it actually was. It must be that sub-conscience 99 thing that I always dismiss as being so stupid. Like $1.99 or $299 or whatever. Well, it got me this time.

Oh for Heaven’s sake. It cost $299, OK? I spent fricken $299 on Rouxbe.com! Are you happy? In my mind I thought it was $200 and I thought that was a pretty good deal. Lifetime membership! The website is a huge undertaking. And very well done. I wanted to support them. Assuming they are still around in a few years, that’s a great deal, right? The site has expanded to contain a ton of stuff, they are always adding more videos…. Oh, you’re not my husband, why am I explaining this to you?!

Whatever. Now I feel stupid. Is it any wonder I can’t keep secrets? I write a stupid post and feel compelled to tell all. Just imagine how easily I cave when questioned by a real person! Note to readers: don’t tell me secrets.

Anyway, I certainly experienced pangs of buyer’s remorse, but since I have the membership, I’ve been using the site a lot more. But here is what I can’t figure out: most of it still seems free to the public! It really is an amazing site. This shrimp pad thai recipe is so good. I’ve probably made pad thai three or four times in the past, and frankly, they stunk. Nothing like the real thing. This recipe was THE BEST. Easily as good as the best pad thai I’ve had in restaurants. And it’s so simple. And you can watch it free. While I paid $299. And you can feel smart and frugal. And I can feel dumb and frivolous. Even though you wouldn’t even know about it if I hadn’t taken the $299 bullet. Consider it my gift to you.

The only new ingredient I used for this batch, versus the other recipes I’ve tried, was tamarind concentrate. To be clear, other recipes had called for it, I just didn’t have it. But I hardly think that alone could have made such a huge difference. Taste, yes. But the recipe as a whole, no. I think it was the actual technique, which a video demonstration is perfect for. See for yourself: watch this video below. If you like it, watch some of the other videos, too. Be careful though, you might get hooked.

I have no idea what I’m embedding up there. The preview? But here is a link to the whole shebang: Rouxbe.com Shrimp Pad Thai Recipe Video and Text
My notes: (because you didn’t think I had all the ingredients, did you?!)
  • I did have tamarind concentrate, not the brick, but a jar of it, and used the same amount listed in the recipe.
  • I used vegetable stock instead of chicken, and for once didn’t taste it.
  • I used stupid thin little rice sticks because — for the life of me — I can’t find the larger flat ones ANYWHERE. And it makes me so mad! And that is why my noodles are more mangled in the photo above. At least that’s why I say they are more mangled, and not because of my unpracticed technique.
  • I ran out of fish sauce after 4 tablespoons (instead of 6) and it was just fine.
  • I did not have palm sugar (jaggery in Indian cooking) and used brown sugar as a substitute.
  • I did not have pickled radishes. I had moldy radishes and considered putting some vinegar on them and calling them pickled, but I restrained myself.
  • I did not have ground shrimp. I made no substitutes and make no apologies.

My photo is, as usual, hideous. I apologize for that. Oh, and I also apologize to Morgan, who I yelled at before dinner and, therefore, ruined her true enjoyment of another great meal cooked by her mom.

With that, I end this post and leave to go eat the leftovers as depicted in this blurry photo:

Meatless Monday Sixteen!

Namaste.

Indian again?

That’s what he said. He being Charlie, who contends that he doesn’t know where I got the idea he loves Indian food. Truth is, I think if I keep telling him that he loves it, he’ll actually start believing me.

Which would be convenient, since the rest of us are deeply, madly in love with it.

Here’s my theory on the attraction of Indian: going meatless for a meat-loving family is hard. Not because we can’t get filled up on stuff that doesn’t contain meat, but because I want to make truly vegetarian fare — not pancakes! With no experience in vegetarian eating, I try to seek out interesting recipes.

Like Thai. LOVE Thai food. So I could make a curry, right? No. Cuz I end up thinking… “oh. I wish this had chicken thighs in it….”

Or Japanese/Chinese. LOVE Japanese/Chinese. So I could make a noodle/broth dish, or a stir fry, right? No…. Cuz I find that I am not a huge fan of vegetable broth. (Still haven’t made my own, so I am reserving final judgement on this.) So, soups are out, at least for now. Stir fries are OK, but I still haven’t found a wining tofu recipe yet that will convince Dave and Charlie that it is legitimate food.

The problem is, most of the food and recipes I gravitate to have a taste history I am already familiar with. And I find myself missing that which is missing: chicken, bacon, broth, pork, etc.

Whereas, Indian is new! I have none of those biases. Not to mention the bold seasonings don’t require chicken broth! Win. Win. WIN. Love Indian food and don’t miss the meat. Now, I just need to find other ethnicities that are like that. Maybe African? Jamaican? Creole? Anyone got any bizarre suggestions for me along those lines?

I made this week’s recipe up, sort of melding a few together. I realize now that I really didn’t take any pictures and have since horked down the leftovers, spaz that I am. So I’ll just describe it. Some readers will be thankful, as I have been receiving feedback that my photos of Meatless Mondays are ‘sick.’

Nutty Dal and Rice on Naan

I did the usual spice mix, of heating oil and tossing in cumin and mustard seeds and quickly covering the pan before they pop all over the place. Then added onion and garlic (instead of asefetid…. can’t remember how to spell it), garam masala, coriander, turmeric, cardomom.

Then I added diced potatoes and cooked for a long time to soften. Added the cooked lentils. Then I added about 3/4 cup of rough-chopped peanuts. I wished I had some cilantro, but didn’t.

I also made some dough for naan and let rise for about 2 hours, while everyone was at soccer. They didn’t get home until almost 8:30pm. I have no idea where I was and why I didn’t have dinner ready and waiting when they got back, but I didn’t. It was a scramble. So instead of rolling each piece of naan into a ball and resting and blah blah blah, I cut the dough in two, rolled it flat and threw the two pieces into the oven like that. It worked great.

The meal was delicious, even if the one photo I took of it isn’t:

I feel the need to boast that in the last 9 days, we’ve had 4 meatless dinners (Dave worked another baked potato dinner in last night) and I’ve had at least 5 meatless lunches! Why, I’m practically a vegetarian!

Well… if you ignore the fact that I’m looking for a local place to buy a whole lamb, that is…

Meatless Monday Fifteen!

I made this “Make-Up” Meatless Monday last week with the kids while Dave was out of town. Somewhere along the way, I got a week behind. This one brought me back on track. It is Sunday night as I write this. We had THREE meatless mondays this week: Monday, Wednesday and tonight, since I will be gone at book club tomorrow.

Again, I didn’t really have a plan, except for a sort of vague asian noodle theme. My menu choices are mostly determined by what I don’t have, rather than what I have. I wonder how common that is? It certainly makes things more interesting. — though I find you get sidetracked when searching the web for inspiration. You know how it is, you aim for goodfood.co.uk, or something, and end up at learning new crochet stitches…. It happens. But I find that at least lacking ingredients narrows my choices down a little.

Anyway, I was flipping through The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook and was intrigued by:

  • Pho: had some cooked chicken and good broth. No bean sprouts, no cilantro: deal breakers.
  • Miso Ramen with all the Trimmings: had the hard boiled eggs (from Easter!). Had the Chinese noodles, broth… No Instant Dashi granules. Damn! I keep forgetting to look for those at the store…
  • Spicy Korean Tofu Stew: had the tofu, the broth… no fresh shitakes, only dried. Plus… Charlie might ax-murder me in my sleep if I made him eat tofu again. Since Dave was out of town that night, I decided not to chance it.
  • Quick Noodle Stir Fry: had the noodles, but not thick ones. Had chives, but not Chinese ones. Had Maggie Gin stir fry sauce, but not Maggi sauce (What is Maggi sauce, anyway?). Had sweetened Chinese rice wine, but not regular Chinese rice wine… I think I can make this work! I’m calling it:

Jen Jen Noodles*

Cook the chinese noodles according to the package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water and toss with about 1 teaspoon sesame oil in a bowl and set aside.

In a wok — here’s mine. I’ve had it since college and paid about $10 for it at Pier One. I should be embarrassed — it looks awful — but according to just about anyone who uses one, it looks just like it is supposed to — nasty!

Par-cook a handful of broccoli and one carrot (sliced) in boiling water (in the wok) until just barely, barely tender. Should still retain crunch! Then plunge into an ice bath and drain. Dry the wok and put back over high heat.

When it’s hot again, add about 1 tablespoon of oil and sauté a clove or two of minced garlic and a handful of chopped chives about a minute. Add the broccoli and carrot. Also add whatever you can dig up that sounds good. I threw in about 1 cup of shelled edamame and completely forgot to throw in the asparagus (from the garden, no less!). Toss around a bit.

Add 2 tablespoons oyster sauce, 2 tablespoons Maggie Gin stir fry sauce, 1 tablespoon sweetened rice wine, 2 teaspoons soy sauce and 2 teaspoons fish sauce. Add the noodles and toss like mad or they will clump. Once heated through, it’s done. Drizzle with about 1 teaspoon additional sesame oil if desired. Oh, I forgot: I also sprinkled toasted peanuts over the top (which, for some reason don’t appear in the photo) and sliced up a hard boiled egg that didn’t turn out to be very hard. The egg was sort of gross. The rest was great.

*get it? Like Dan Dan Noodles.